Chew Eng Han Attempts To Flee Singapore In A Sampan, One Day Before Jail Term Begins

City Harvest Church’s Chew Eng Han Arrested At Sea After Trying To Escape Singapore In A Motorised Sampan

If you recall, one ex-leader of City Harvest Church (CHC) was granted a final jail deferment to spend Chinese New Year with his family.

Turns out, he had other grand plans in mind — a great sea escape via a motorised sampan. No doubt a timely attempt to evade his 3 year 4 month stay in prison, just one day before it was slated to begin.

Former City Harvest Church fund manager Chew Eng Han was supposed to start serving his jail sentence of three years and four months tomorrow after the court approved his application to delay it to spend Chinese New Year with his family.

Unfortunately, the convict tried to make a run for it today. Or rather, he sailed away — the 57-year-old attempted to flee the country on a motorized sampan this morning, according to the police at a news conference held this afternoon. Channel NewsAsia reported that Police Coast Guard officers arrested him at about 8:47am today, seizing about S$5,000 in cash, a couple of phones, and some fishing equipment found on the boat.

Chew is one of the six former City Harvest Church figures who was convicted in 2015 for misappropriating S$50 million in church funds. Unlike the rest of his cohort who surrendered themselves to the authorities on Apr 21 last year, he has yet to start serving his jail term (for criminal breach of trust and falsification of accounts). Also unlike his conspirators, Chew represented himself in High Court and tried to challenge his conviction, but failed both times. In the end, he asked to defer his sentence for one last time to spend the Chinese New Year holidays with his family and was due to turn himself in tomorrow.

Former City Harvest Church fund manager Chew Eng Han was arrested on Wednesday morning (Feb 21) for attempting to flee the country in a sampan, the police said at a news conference.

The 57-year-old, one of six church leaders convicted in 2015 of misappropriating S$50 million of church funds, was due to turn himself in on Thursday to begin his jail term.

In a split decision by the High Court last April, Chew had his original six-year jail sentence lowered to three years and four months. Chew is the only one of the six who has not started serving his jail term for criminal breach of trust and falsification of accounts.

Former City Harvest Church leader Chew Eng Han had been ‘praying hard’ to prepare for jail before failed escape bid

Former City Harvest Church fund manager Chew Eng Han was arrested along with another man at 8.47am on board a motorised sampan. The Straits Times

With three weeks to go to his prison term, former City Harvest Church (CHC) fund manager Chew Eng Han said earlier this month that he was going to “pray, pray, pray” to prepare himself for jail and that he was relieved the legal process was over.

In WhatsApp messages to The Straits Times on Feb 1, shortly after a court hearing that confirmed that he would have to serve three years and four months for criminal breach of trust, Chew, 57, insisted that he was innocent and that the truth would prevail one day.

Chew said if he truly felt he was guilty, “it would be easier to serve the sentence”.

When the news broke, everyone on the internet mocked him for being a moron.

But is he? It seems all too simple. Why would a church with infinite money use Sampans? Who is the anonymous ‘tip-off’? Who the hell makes their escape from Pulau Ubin? If he really wanted to run, why didn’t he just pray for Jesus to teleport him away like a normal person?